Vote of censure: Personal vendetta against Health Minister - Afenyo-Markin

Minority has called for a vote of censure on the health minister

This is in relation to decisions he took to procure some vaccines

Afenyo-Markin says it is a personal vendetta aginst the minister

Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, the Deputy Majority Leader, has described calls for the dismissal of Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, by the Minority in Parliament as a vendetta against the Minister.

According to him, the sudden vote of censure forms part of measures to drag the reputation of the Health Minister into the mud.

“They are perhaps doing their usual partisan political points scoring by this sudden attempt at perjury. If this is them trying to personalise the matter, that somebody doesn’t like Agyemang-Manu and wants to go after him, they should make it clear.”

“I expect them reasonably to act in good faith, but this new attack on the Minister is another personal attack and nothing more. It would be unconscionable for the Minority to suddenly argue that there should be a censure against the Minister. That I think is an attempt to be overly partisan to attack the integrity of the Minister,” he said in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM.

All 137 NDC MPs in a motion filed on Wednesday are seeking the removal of the minister from office.

The Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed-Muntaka Mubarak, in a the memo to the Speaker explained that the Dormaa Central MP’s action contradicted Article 191 of the 1992 Constitution.

The Minority is convinced that the health minister is guilty of perjury, among others, when he “misrepresented to the Ad Hoc Committee on Oaths that no payment was made under the agreement to the Private Office of His Highness Shiek Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum [the Dubai-based businessman the Ministry of Health contacted for the procurement of Russian-made COVID-19 vaccines].”

Meanwhile, Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, says he is unperturbed by the Minority’s call for his dismissal from office due to his involvement in the botched Sputnik V vaccine deal.

The Dormaa Central MP, told Joy News in an interview that, he is not aware of any vote of censure against him.

When asked if he is perturbed over such a call, he responded:

“Perturbed of what? What is my crime? That is why I said I do not want to talk to any journalist now; I will get too emotional…There was a committee, and the House has adopted the Committee’s report; I want to end there.”